Make These Crazy Pancakes for Brunch

If there’s one aspect of pancakes we love more than any other, it’s the cake part. Seriously, it’s a series of cakes made in a pan. And you get to have more than one cake at a time, sometimes more than three if you’re feeling ambitious. So you not only can, but you should, go crazy with the flavors and add-ins in this weekend breakfast and brunch staple.

All you need is your basic nonstick pan or a well-seasoned cast iron skillet, some oil or butter, a good spatula for peeling off the hot cakes, and some patience in your flipping skills. Your skills pan out after the first couple tries. Learn more about pancakes, from more classic recipes to tips.

But the batter isn’t all. Consider more toppings than simply syrup and butter. Oh, yes. Get other breakfast and brunch ideas to celebrate your warming weekends. In the meantime, play with some of these creative ideas that go beyond typical twists of adding blueberries, bananas, or chocolate chips.

1. Carrot Cake Pancakes

Chowhound

Take the ingredients you love in carrot cakes and put them in your breakfast cakes —makes sense, right? Yep. Grated carrots join with apples in this batter, but then you also can lap up that cream-cheese frosting-like syrup, if you can call it syrup. More like heaven. Get our Carrot Cake Pancakes recipe.

2. Tiramisu Protein Pancakes

Kiss My Broccoli

These are pretty healthy, as far as pancakes go, packed with good nutrition and vanilla protein powder. The creamy filling is made with mashed banana and cottage cheese, which really does the trick. Cocoa dust finishes it off. No guilt, all the decadence. Get the recipe.

3. Birthday Cake Pancakes

Chowhound

Rainbow-colored jimmies (sprinkles) tossed into the batter take your regular buttermilk pancakes from good to great, from brunch to birthday brunch. Try this recipe especially if it’s a little girl’s or boy’s birtday, although any day is a good reason to inject more color and festivity. And you must sprinkle more jimmies into the sweetened whipped cream on top, of course. Get our Birthday Cake Pancakes recipe.

4. Cornbread Pancakes with Maple-Pecan Syrup

Chowhound

This might be one of the most American styles of pancakes, native American that is. Cornbread- filled cakes doused with maple syrup infused with pecans and butter is quite the locally sourced breakfast item. If local is anything that can be sourced in the United States. Get our Cornbread Pancakes with Maple-Pecan Syrup recipe.

5. Paleo Mexican Hot Chocolate Pancakes with Salted Dulce de Leche

The Healthy Maven

Guys, spicy chocolate pancakes would be enough awesomeness, but then this reicpe had to go and add this other component, that sweet milk topping like a frosting from the gods. Who cares if you follow the Paleo lifestyle or not? Delicious is delicious. Get the recipe.

6. Cheesy Leftover Mashed Potato Pancakes

Just a Taste

If you’ve had enough of the sweet side and want something savory, this is the way to go. You don’t necessarily need to wait until your mashed potatoes are left over. Get the recipe.

7. Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Tastes of Lizzy T

You make the cinnamon filling and the maple cream cheese glaze plus the regular pancake batter and it’s so much easier than making cinnamon rolls, letting the Get the recipe.

8. Flourless Banana Coconut Oatmeal Pan-Cakes with Caramelized Banana

Harmony A La Carte

These dense, sweet pancakes are packed with ground oats, coconut flakes, and banana, and with the caramelized banana on top, it’s a filling treat that’s great for people who need to eat gluten-free or Paleo. Or you just love coconut, bananas, caramel, and general deliciousness. Get the recipe.

9. Double Chocolate Chocolate Pancakes

Bakerella

How about chocolate with a side of chocolate, dotted with chocolate, drizzled with chocolate? OK. This is for the die-hard chocoholic, and it is a full-fledged binge. Get the recipe.

Amy Sowder is the assistant editor at Chowhound in New York City. She loves cheesy things, especially toasties and puns. She's trying to like mushrooms. Her running habit is the excuse for her gelato passion. Or is it the other way around? Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and her blog, What Do I Eat Now. Learn more at AmySowder.com.